Researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which does R&D for the military, are researching technologies that could keep wireless connections operating and sounding clear amid strong interference.
Apple will publish the guidelines it uses to determine which programs can be sold in its App Store.
The move follows more than two years of complaints from software developers about the company's secret and seemingly capricious rules, which block some programs from the store. Developers have had little guidance from Apple, meaning they often had to complete their programs only to find them blocked by the company. The company has been known to block applications because of sexual content, because they contain political satire, and because they just don't do much. Apple will lift restrictions imposed earlier this year on using third-party development tools that "translate" code written for another platform. That means developers who work in Adobe Systems Inc.'s Flash or Oracle Corp.'s Java language can convert their programs into iPhone apps without rewriting them.
NetChoice, an Internet industry group, has released the latest version of its i-AWFUL list of legislative proposals that it says could hamper the growth of e-commerce and the Internet.
Included on this list is the draft privacy bill offered by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA)and a similar bill from House Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Rush (D-IL). NetChoice Executive Director Steve DelBianco said by conflating personally sensitive information such as financial or medical data with marketing data collected about Internet users for the purpose of targeted ads, the Boucher and Rush measures would "constrain one of the few growth industries," online advertising. Among the provisions the group finds particularly onerous include one in Rush's bill that would provide users with a private right of action, language in Boucher's draft that would require consumer consent before a company could send follow-up e-mails to consumers and legislation in the measures giving the FTC rulemaking authority. "If the bills move forward, they will make [Internet] advertising more expensive," DelBianco said.
A new report from media agency RPA shows that for all time-shifted viewing -- live plus seven days of DVR playback -- total viewing among viewers two-plus increased 4% to 96.8 million program minutes (using Nielsen NTI data) in the 2009-2010 season.
Even 18-49 viewers -- the key buying group for TV advertisers -- improved 1% to 41.07 million program minutes versus the year before. RPA notes that DVR penetration was 36% for the year versus 30% the year before and 23% in the 2007-2008 year. Looking at C3 ratings -- commercial ratings plus three days of DVR playback, a measure that TV advertisers use as the currency of their TV purchases -- viewing for total viewers was up 3% to 86.1 million program minutes. Adults 18-49 were down 1% in this category to 35.7 million program minutes. Total viewing for all viewers was up in two other categories: live program same-day viewing, 2% higher to 93.1 million program minutes, and commercial ratings-plus-same-day-DVR-playback ratings, up 2% to 84.0 million program minutes.
Even if the timeframe for the R&D tax credit proposed by President Barack Obama was clear, there is still ambiguity about whether Congress will approve it, particularly in the weeks leading up to the mid-term election. But the fact that the president has pitched this tax break may be enough to prompt some IT managers to take a second look at some of their purchase plans, said Joseph Pucciarelli, program director of technology financial and executive strategies at IDC. An announcement of a major tax incentive for 2011 capital investment will cause a reduction in discretionary IT spending, equipment and system upgrades for the balance of 2010, said Pucciarelli. The tax proposal "will definitely cause borderline projects to be deferred, if the CFO believes that this proposal has a possibility of being implemented," Pucciarelli said. If the investment write-off is approved, Pucciarelli estimates that it could increase IT spending anywhere between 7 percent and 12 percent. IT hardware purchases are forecasted this year by IDC to reach $135 billion.
[Commentary] You probably take the open Internet for granted. When you go online, you go wherever you want and do whatever you want, anytime.
The Internet is the modern town square -- and the beauty of it is there are no gatekeepers, tollbooths or walled gardens getting in the way. All of this openness is made possible by the principle of "network neutrality." But now, companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon want to end net neutrality and create fast and slow lanes for content and users. They want to decide which Web sites and services work best -- based on whom they can cut a deal with. They want to end the free and open Internet as we know it. That means Comcast could decide to slow down YouTube in favor of Hulu, or favor Google over Bing.
We've seen what happens -- from the meltdown on Wall Street to the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico -- when industry is allowed to regulate itself. It's time for the FCC to step up and take action. Smart policies, starting with clear net neutrality rules no matter how you access the Internet, are the best way to protect consumers, promote investment and create new jobs.
Mississippi Public Broadcasting Executive Director Judy Lewis has resigned, Mississippi Authority for Educational Television Chairman Bob Sawyer said. The statement tout's MPB's success over the last year, but offers no details on why Lewis resigned.
While serving as executive director, Lewis was involved in MPB's July 8 decision to pull the nationally syndicated show "Fresh Air," for what it deemed "inappropriate content," after comedian Louis C.K. answered questions from about wearing his shirt during sex. On July 27, the station announced it would return "Fresh Air" to its radio schedule in a new 9 p.m. time slot. Lewis, a native of Morton, Miss., served as executive director of MPB since August 2009. Prior to working at MPB, she was a communications professor at Mississippi College. Lewis received her master's and bachelor's degrees in education and speech communication from Mississippi College, and her doctorate in higher education from the University of Mississippi.
Pacifica Radio, the nonprofit organization that runs the nation's oldest public-radio network, is in talks with the Al Jazeera Network to put the Persian Gulf-based news service on its five stations, including WPFW-FM in Washington.
If an agreement is reached, Pacifica would become the biggest American broadcaster to air Al Jazeera, whose news reports have at times drawn criticism from Western governments, including the Bush administration during the early days of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Al Jazeera is perhaps best known for being the first network to broadcast video communiques from Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Last April the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission conducted a hearing to review a two per cent cable levy (bringing in roughly $120 million a year) that four family-controlled cable monopolies -- Cogeco, Rogers, Shaw and Vidéotron -- have been mostly using as their own media slush fund. These corporations already earn a 25 per cent profit margin amounting to almost $2 billion each year, and both Rogers and Shaw have raised cable rates by more than 68 per cent in recent years.
If you haven't heard about this large community media fund, it's because it appears to have been mismanaged and put towards what many consider to be commercial television endeavors.
[Commentary] There are not many things in this world that will enable you to travel without leaving your easy chair, to slip into the mind of another person, to expose yourself to the educational, the inspirational and the subversive. A library card is one of them.
When you get right down to it, which would you rather be without: a library card or a credit card? I know which one gets me in more trouble. September is Library Card Sign-up Month. In honor of that, I wanted to go to that beacon of learning, the Library of Alexandria. But since it burned down about 2,000 years ago, I instead went to the Alexandria Library on Duke Street.
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